This invention relates to terminal applicator apparatus wherein terminals provided on a continuous belt are indexed toward the crimping dies; and, more particularly, to such apparatus wherein the crimped wire end is moved away from the belt and the crimping dies so that the terminal is broken away from and removed from the belt.
It is known in the art to provide several types of crimpable connecting devices such as terminals on a continuous belt of plastic or thin metal. The terminals are suitably secured to the belt in a manner such that they can be fed to a crimping apparatus and the leading terminal of the belt is crimped onto a wire after which it is removed from the belt. Apparatus wherein the crimped termination is separated from the belt after crimping, and in a positive manner without the need of any particular manipulative steps on the part of the operator are also known and have been widely used in the art. A device of this type is exemplified in the U.S. Pat. No. 3,553,814. These devices utilize a belt moving means for moving the belt guiding means relatively away from the crimping dies while the dies are in their closed condition and in engagement with a crimped terminal thereon, thereby to break the crimped terminal away from the belt.
These prior art devices essentially provide a moving table adapted for lateral movement away from the dies and wherein the belt indexing mechanism is fixedly disposed onto the movable table. The table is connected to the ram of the associated press by means of a linkage system wherein the movable table is moved during a predetermined portion of the operating cycle of the press ram. These devices suffer with the obvious disadvantage that such a movable table arrangement is inordinately complex as well as expensive. Further, these devices are necessarily provided with some form of ejection means to physically remove the terminated wire lead from the vicinity of the crimping dies and after the moving table has functioned to break the terminal away from the belt.
These and other disadvantages are overcome by the present invention wherein the feeding or belt indexing means are advantageously fixedly mounted relative to the crimping dies or crimping station. The terminated lead is broken away from the belt by means of a dual-purpose ejector means which not only serves to remove the terminated lead from the vicinity of the crimping dies but also functions to break the terminated lead from the continuous belt.